this one talk of social care. giving money to those who need it and let them buy it. better than the present system where council provides it and you have to take it and lump it.

and here is another microsoft article about it stomping on its competitors by disabling the rival antivirus and installing its own when it upgrades to windows 10. that is why google is being fined so much by the EU … maybe the usa and uk might like to take a leaf out of the EU and be stricter with microsoft and google and all the other big guns .

i still do not know why people dont just buy a chrome book and leave all this nonsense dealing with microsoft like upgrading, viruses, hardware, etc behind. i never have to worry about it anymore ever since i got my chromebook. i am into my 4th year of using chromebook. hope it can last 10yrs at least. haha. i hope they are not putting in planned obsolescence where it self destructs after 2 -3 yrs. like smartphones which seem to last about 2-4 yrs at most. my previous chrome book went kaput after 2yrs use. this one, given to me free to replace the other one that went kaput, is coming up to its 2nd year…lets see if it lasts me till my next birthday… in june 2018. but at £230 when i bought the original one, each year costs me £76 so far. and decreasing with each year that passes.

added. here is another interesting article about the designers of the seat covers in the london underground trains. they are rather unusual and distinctive and made in such a way with patterns that hide the dirt very well indeed. they call it moquette.

some dramatic pictures in the report on the wild fire in the med due to this hot weather they are having now. we are having a dull cloudy rainy day here in london i like it, but those who dont may take a look at what is happening over there from their hot weather and be grateful for our weather here. we dont know how good this weather is until u have something like that to compare.

simon has a windows laptop and he is getting trouble connecting to the home wifi router. my friend who uses a apple laptop, and i , using a chromebook have no trouble connecting to it, but he is .

his laptop has forgotten the password to connect to my router and have connected to another person’s router in the same building. how that can happen when he have not got that person’s password is a mystery. though i suspect he is not really connected because he cannot get onto the internet with it.

maybe i am wrong to blame it all on windows. but it is a fact that ever since i stopped using windows, i have no trouble with gaining access to the internet. no virus to bother about. so that whenever i get telephone calls from people with foreign accents telling me i got a virus in my computer and telling me what to do, i can tell them i got a chrome book so no need and put the phone down on them. it saves a lot of bother.

i would say to anyone who dont want to bother with all that virus and stuff, just get a chromebook. make your life simpler why dont you. unless u are the type who wants to make your life difficult, than carry on using windows.

added. 12.26 sunny 14.4C looking out onto a bright calm blue sky sunny day makes me wonder why people want to live permanently on a yacht and sail all over the world. this thought came to me because i read this article about a couple who were rescued from their yacht during rough seas when their rudder broke . they have been living life on the sea for 7yrs and this thing happen to them. they were sailing in the southern hemisphere where it is summer, so you would think those storms associated with winter wont happen. but of course there are no rules that say winter storms wont happen in summer haha… i guess even if they are not getting too old for it, (they are very experienced sailors so they will be ok), their yacht is getting past it. even if u maintain it in tiptop condition there is no guarantee that your new rudder wont break, the sea can be very strong and break things even if it is new.

it makes me think… i have been living in this flat for 25yrs and hardly need to worry about maintaining it in tiptop condition. this is because there are other people whose job it is to worry about those things. haha. that is the beauty of living in a flat as opposed to a house. (all those who are growing old in a house now, might seriously consider downsizing to a flat. it is much warmer than a house for one thing. )

unlike a yacht where u have to otherwise this kind of thing happens.living life dangerously. it does not appeal to me. and having to rely on a piece of floating ‘coffin’ does not appeal to me actually. but i guess it takes all sorts to make a world.

i know everyone says to live u must experience everything. hence people make up bucket lists and lists on things u must do before u die… but to me i only want to experience nice things and even then not all of them; i dont mind if i dont ever experience those bothersome/nasty things.

i suppose i must be of another generation where the word black denotes death and that something horrible has happened. that is what i always feel when i read or see ‘black friday’ anywhere. but it seems this generation thinks of it as a great day, when it is time to splurge out, or that after today they are working for themselves rather than for the taxman, or that today is a day they start getting the profit.

well i thought i shall get into the mood of it and join them by buying something. but it was a half hearted attempt really haha. i had thoughts of wondering what it will be like to own a smartphone so i went to the nearest carphonewarehouse at victoria, and looked at the cheapest thing on the wall display… an alcatel with 3.5inch screen . £49 to buy outright. a young kid came up to me, he was looking so young and asked me if he can help me. i asked if it takes a ordinary sim card… and he said i shall find out. and came back to say it takes a micro sim card. there is another size called a nano that is even smaller. so i thought oh well, that is that then, because i got a standard size one from talktalk which i am using on my nokia mobile.

then he said round the corner there is another carphone warehouse who could chop it to size for £2. that is news to me. u can chop it smaller? and sure enough, he showed me a picture of the standard size, with the actual chip pasted in the middle looking much smaller than the cardboard that fits the standard size slot. i suppose there must be some skill in cutting it , otherwise anyone could do it themselves right? but it is good to know that i could buy one of these smartphones without fearing my standard size sim card wont fit. or having to order a micro sim specially.

i suppose the nano one will have to be ordered specially . but i think only very expensive models like iphones , or the top brands will be using those. and if u got the money to spend £700 on them, u can afford to splash out on a nano sim, dont you think? but in the end i did not buy from them . even though he said u can pay just £19.99 and top up with £10 and it is yours. you dont have to use the sim, just use yours… and keep the other as a spare. but online i have seen one that you can buy outright for £39, and another which they say just top up with £20 and it is yours. and that one is 4 inch. i cant remember which online store i saw it, now. but i am sure it will pop up on my outlook express as an advert . haha.

the thing is i am not sure what a smartphone do. i mean apart from making like an ordinary phone, does it work like my chromebook? only smaller? and if that is the case i allready got my chromebook so why should i need it? are there other things that it will do that my mobile , and my chromebook separately does not? if so, what are those, and is it worthwhile to buy one?

questions, questions, and no one to answer them. maybe because the answer is oh just stop asking the questions allready, and just buy one and try it out. haha. maybe deep down i am just not convinced i want one.

added 10.45am 1 dec 2016. cloudy 3.9C. read this about more than 1million accounts breached , via android devices. 57% were in asia, 9%in europe. it then can access google accounts like google drive, google docs, gmail. it makes me hesitant about getting a smartphone, because if i get one i want an android device. the malware has not infected europe that much …yet. it might be if i get one i should go for the latest product as it might have better security. well, the main reason i got chromebook was for the security, and i am not willing to have to bother again with potential security breaches that would by pass my chromebook security if i get a smartphone. so i shall postpone getting a smartphone for now. it affects

Android 4 (Jelly Bean, KitKat) and 5 (Lollipop). so another way of countering it is to get smartphones with android 6 marshmallow or higher.

this one is a porcelain horse that my friend covered with gold leaf to make for his father’s 90th birthday. it is to suggest he is still going strong like that horse, at the ripe old age of 90.

added. 10.49pm 7C dry . mustbe quite a eerie sight in central london tonight, seems there is a power cut affecting only soho and westend. certainly i was not affected. i am sure all those businesses there would have preferred they are not affected, as it is the busiest part of london. it seems it started around 5pm, and lasted about 4hrs. the daily mail had some pictures showing the huge advertising board at piccadilly completely dark. and all the streets are dark. on a friday night too when people will be out and about on the start of their weekend revelry. the tube network was not affected, but the theatres have to cancel their performances.

a friend have been trying to get me via skype from his hotmail acccount. he said he can see me online and tried to call me but i said i dont get the call and i cannot activate it to talk to him or to hear him. i thought it might be my fault, and that i have not activated my loudspeakers. so i said i shall go to the curry’s (a high street electronic shop) in tottenham court road where there is a google chrome chap there to help.

so i did this morning. the guy who works there says it is not available on chrome, and though i have read that there is an android app that is available to download by chrome, it is only available on certain chromebooks like the acer. mine is a toshiba. so that is that. cant say i am put out by it as i dont really fancy chatting online.

there are lots of things that i dont mind not getting. perhaps that might explain why i like the chromebook, even though it dont seem to be able to do these things.

the journey there was not entirely wasted however, as the chap showed me how to store pictures in the google photos. i have been storing it on the cloud in google drive, which they gave me free for 2yrs when i bought the chromebook. it has expired now, but it seems i can still store pics there as i have not used up the storage capacity. but the google man i consulted at the store says i should add them to google photos as that is unlimited. ah well, the pics are not that important anyway. i use it to upload the pics from my camera so that i can put it in this wordpress blog.

on the way back i saw a woman cross the road in front of the bus, and she was looking the other way, and the look of surprise and horror on her face when the bus driver hooted her and she turned to look and saw the bus right on top of her as it were … is priceless. i thought so that is the reason why i keep reading pedestrians being hit by buses in the news. it is the proverbial saying isn’t it? that u can be hit by a bus… it is supposed to imply the event is unlikely… but with all these continentals used to driving on the wrong side of the road, ( i know… to them we are the ones driving on the wrong side hehe) they come here and forget and that is when they walk straight in front of the bus. in this case she stepped out far enough from the bus for the driver to see her and avoid her.

its been a week since i have been without my chromebook.

i got a call at about 4pm yesterday from john lewis, saying they cannot repair my old chromebook so they are giving me a replacement up to a value of £199.95 or refund. so i went immediately to the store in oxford st to get it. unfortunately they did not have a chromebook in store, and their refund mechanism got a glitch, so i asked if their other branch in sloane square got one. and he called them and reserved one and i went there to get it.

i thought i got a 11inch one when i checked it on the bus back, and that is why i did not use it that night intending to replace it the next day , because it looks so small and fitted so loosely inside my backpack. the old one strained the seams of the pack.

so i took it back to the store this morning but to my embarrassment, it was 13inches. and measured it diagonally with a ruler to convince me of it. they have given me a new model which is much smaller in size but the screen is 13inch.

so now i got a brand new model toshiba chromebook 13inch. even though it was listed as £229.95, but i did not have to pay the extra. hope they dont come back to me asking me to pay that extra, but i was told they wont.

so i have to say all praise to john lewis for their customer service and guarantee… that 2yr guarantee is a huge plus. most manufacturers give a 1yr guarantee and u have to pay the postage and pack it yourself to send it to them, whilst u can just hand it to the john lewis store and they take care of it all.

later, i got from the repair desk shop assistant that the report of the repair was that the parts to repair my old chromebook cost more than to replace it new. i wonder how common this problem with overheating of the chromebook. it is not meant to generate so much heat , that is why it has no fan. well i am hoping this new one is better built and so i wont get this problem 2yrs from now. i was told the new guarantee is for one year, the manufacturer’s guarantee. after two years of use, i am a strong fan of the chromebook and would use chromebooks from now on. even the new adaptor is smaller and more powerful , charging seems to take a shorter time. and all my favourites and bookmarks were intact inside google chrome, all the saved passwords too… so it was a dream to get set up and ready to go.

yesterday i asked simon to use his windows laptop, and it reminded me how awful it was. so slow. i lost patience with it. he said when he bought it new it was very fast then with each new what is that word, where microsoft insists on adding new stuff automatically, the laptop got slower and slower.

Digital StillCamera

a statue in chinatown. i did not notice the mice until i see that photo now. it makes me laugh and remember all those tourists who jump out and click furiously taking pictures of the grand canyon, and then all hurry off to their next port of call, as if to say dont bother to see it now , we can see it all later with the pictures.

today is the longest day, summer solstice. or is it tomorrow?

Jun. 21, 2016

Rise

Set

Actual Time

4:43 AM BST

9:21 PM BST

Length of Day

16h 38m

Tomorrow will be 0m6s shorter.

and very sunny it is too. i was missing getting online everyday during the first part of the week when i was without , but as the week wore on, i seem to have adjusted. so if u have asked me at the beginning, i would have really missed not being online, but ask me now i would have given a different answer. it is funny how the mind adjusts to circumstances and find other things to occupy itself when one avenue is gone.

but it is nice to get online again, to read other blogs and find out what is going on with other people’s lives.

added. 9.45am wednesday 22.6.16 i have looked up the model on google. it can support the google android apps. the old one wont let me get on skype, this one might be able to let me get that as well as onto whatsapp. right now i am not bothered, but who knows, one do not know what one has missed until one gets it , then one cannot have enough of it.

added 30.6.16 unfortunately i found out from the google chrome help in curry’s the electronic shop, that my chrome dont support the apps. so that is that. haha.

a strange day. i am without my chrome book. earlier today i was downloading that pic u see… when suddenly the pointer disappeared and i could not type or do anything to it. its like the screen froze. anyway there was nothing to do except switch it off and reboot. and that was when the screen went blank and won’t start. i noticed the back of the chromebook was hot.

i wanted to go right away to john lewis in oxford st, with it to ask their repair shop to sort it out. but my friend was with me, and his bus leaves at 3pm, so it being 1pm, he stayed till 2pm before he decided to go. as soon as he left i took the bus to the store. on the way i noticed the chrome book was getting hotter. so i decided to switch it off completely by pressing the on button for a long time. that is one way to switch it off. when i arrived i told the lady there that it got hot and switched off. she opened the chromebook and it turned on. it must have got cooled. luckily she did not ask me what happened… just asked to see the guarantee…she immediately said we shall send it off to repair. that was quick.

anyway i mentioned to her , the trouble is it has just expired. she said yes, and she started telephoning someone . and then went away… when she got back she said they will send it off to repair, and bear the cost , just as a one off. only warning me that if the fault is due to spillage or due to my fault then i will have to pay. well, that is very good of them. the guarantee expired on 11. june. and today is 14th june. so really if they want to be v strict, it is outof guarantee and they have a right to ask me to pay it. so i would very good of them to waive the fee. i highly recommend buying from john lewis. such good customer service.

anyway while she was away, i quickly went into the laptop and cleared the what -do- u- call it, the memory whatever… and lucky i did, because she took the chromebook there and then, gave me a receipt, said it will take 3working days and she ask me for my phone number and said we will call u when it is ready.. so quick, i have my baby taken away from me. i am writing this on the library computer. i am glad i went so quickly to john lewis. if i had let it cooled down it would have restarted and i might have not bothered and then days later the problem would recur and it might be too far gone from the expired date of the guarantee…